And with that, True Blood has delivered two major character deaths within three episodes. This must be the final season, as if the writers are scrambling to free up space for other characters to get the occasional time in the spotlight. Sometimes this works, but more often it doesn’t.

We’re starting to see some semblance of a bigger threat that hopefully will get more characters involved. This move wasn’t handled gracefully, but at least we appear to be gaining momentum.

The episode begins in Los Angeles, California at a yoga facility. The instructor, Guru Sanbir Dutta, played by Shishir Kurup, gives the typical yoga shtick that you’ve heard before: be in tune only with yourself. The payoff to this scene? A young woman who looks very familiar.

Oh, wait.

Back in France, Pam demands to know how long Eric has been infected. He saw the first signs last month in St. Petersburg, but kept moving anyway. Pam is obviously livid since she felt Tara’s true death, but Eric remained silent. He’s supposed to be a fighter, but for now, he looks to have given up.

We flash back to Rhone Valley, France, 1986, where we see Eric feeding berries to a young woman named Sylvie, played by Gabriella Wright. They’re doing very naughty things, don’t you know? If caught, Eric will just glamour the girl’s father. Or kill him. But for now, he feeds and they fuck in the grass.

They’re interrupted by a woman from The Authority, who chastises Eric and Pam for not registering, being in touch with the local sheriff or paying their taxes. What leeches! They can either be in hiding or out in the open, but don’t try to mix the two. That’s hard to do when Eric is biting and fornicating with the French. There is something to look forward to, though: a human blood substitute. If the two aren’t interested, their option is to leave tonight, but Eric is far too interested in the French vagina. Who wouldn’t?

Though Pam wants to flee, Eric points out that he’s protected her for 81 years and has no intention of stopping now. So she must fall in line with him. Maybe Pam should just show Eric her vagina and match it up against Sylvie’s. Just a suggestion.

Alcide finally finishes his shower to find Sookie gone. Following her scent, he heads to Bill’s, but she’s not there, either.

Instead, we’re on the road with Bill and Sookie. Bill’s convinced that he covered their tracks so Alcide won’t be able to find him. We’ll see about that. It’s too late for Sookie to be talked out of this plan. Bill won’t be able to feel her because he’s been drained of most of his blood after giving his blood to other vampires at the end of last season. He’s not the same Bill that she once knew, but he still has her memories. Regardless, she still needs his blood now.

Adilyn reminds Adam that they once made out, but a vampire glamoured the memory out of him. This is somehow the best news he’s heard all day. Can’t say that I disagree with him. Andy arrives to spring the two free and learns about the stolen guns by the mob. What’s the mob after? Anyone and anything that’s different than them. Real subtle there, True Blood.

Sam and Reverend Daniels talk of faith, which Sam believes got the missing family nowhere. Death still came for them. The reverend gets real: death is a dark, blinding motherfucker.

In come Willa and Lettie Mae, who is still seeing Tara.

Sam and his vampire, Matt, are on a drive when they run smack dab into the mob. They all know of Sam’s ability to shift. They’ve come to take back their town and want Sam gone. To make their point clear, they dispatch of Matt. Sam, with few options, flies off.

Jason proposes to Violet the idea of having a baby. Violet thinks he’s out of his mind. Sure, Violet can’t have bodies, but they could adopt one. After all, a man is nothing without his family. Violet thinks that Jason is behaving like a girl. He’s nothing like the men in her day: warriors with iron hard cocks. Where did this come from? Also, Violet is reading a magazine. She’s a vampire. What magazine could possibly appeal to her?

Andy arrives with Adilyn, Adam and Jessica. He tells Jason that the mob may be after Jessica and instructs Adilyn to stay at Jason’s. Violet, for some reason, confronts Jessica on the grounds that the two apparently have a problem. Jessica didn’t know this.

Lafayette jams before getting a visit from James, who wants more pot. However, Lafayette is all out. The two can still take some pills, but vampires can’t swallow pills. Lafayette gives James a chance to get any issues off of his chest: he doesn’t want to deal with any of Jessica’s shit. The two aren’t really together. They just happen to share the same space and occasionally fuck. That alone isn’t a bad thing. Anyway, the last pill James took turned his body into an ocean. Lafayette may not be able to replicate it, but he can still mix three random drugs and maybe come close. Soon, Lafayette’s gonna take James to the beach. I want to go with them.

At Fangtasia, the Hep-V vampires realize they don’t have enough energy to go hunting for more humans. They bicker until they settle on the idea of taking one of the humans with them as bait. They decide on Holly.

So Sookie puts her plan into motion: using herself as bait. She’s fulfilling her purpose this way and doesn’t want anyone else dying because of her.

Bill, sitting in a tree, asks Sookie if she loves Alcide. None of his business, Sookie counters, but she eventually tells him anyway. She wants kids, but deep down, she’s afraid that she doesn’t love Alcide the same way that he loves her. Bill tells her that love isn’t always equal, though.

Back with Andy and the others, Jason tries calling Sookie’s phone. Sookie really should have told everyone that she tossed her phone. They come to a stop when they spot Sam’s truck…

…and the mob. Were they just waiting there or something? Ms. Fortenberry lashes out at Jason and Jessica for making Hoyt leave her. To punctuate her anger, she shoots Jessica in the shoulder. In return, Violet rips out an internal organ and Fortenberry falls to the ground. The mob disperses. To think that’s all it took.

After a series of random events, Sookie asks Bill if he ever went to Six Flags, which Bill believed was closed down. Sookie once went on her ninth birthday and rode one of the free fall rides. I actually don’t think this is part of the script. I think this is just Anna Paquin and Stephen Moyer having a conversation and the cameras happened to be rolling. Sookie said the scary part wasn’t the drop, it was the wait, like now. Bill knows that feeling from going to war.

So we flash back to him preparing to leave his family. Before he does, he asks photographer Julian Fortenberry, played by Drew Rausch, to take some photos of him and his family.

Reverend Daniels tells Willa that Lettie Mae most definitely burned herself on purpose. As she feeds on him, the reverend shares his story: he moved to Bon Temps after he and his first wife lost their daughter. This destroyed the both of them. His wife strayed and he lost all faith in everything: God, his marriage and himself. He became withdrawn. One day, he put on his collar and just went for a drive. He found a boarded-up church and a woman sitting on the steps. This woman was Lettie Mae Thornton, and she’s still as much of an addict then as she is now. To Mae, Willa is as enticing as a bottle of alcohol. Willa also hasn’t stopped feeding on the reverend while he shares his story. He can’t have her there because it will complicate things. But no worry. God will protect him.

Meanwhile, Lafayette has died. Or James at least thinks so, but he’s just passed out.

We flash back to Rhone Valley as men in black from the Yakamono Corporation get the jump on Eric, Pam and Sylvie. Eric promises to be more careful, but it’s too late for that and The Authority isn’t interested in his money. He must choose whether Pam or Sylvie will die. He can’t offer himself because The Authority wants him arive, I mean alive. After grappling with the decision, Eric chooses Sylvie to die.

In the present, Pam asks Eric whether he got the virus on purpose, which he didn’t. There’s still hope. Vampires can live long lives with the disease and science has almost developed a cure. Subtlety again, True Blood! Eric tells Pam that she’s free to leave and ignores her pleas.

So Pam plays her trump card by informing Eric that Sarah Newlin is still alive. This gets a reaction out of Eric, who gets up and decides it’s time to pay Ms. Newlin a visit.

Speaking of, we return to the guru and Sarah having sexy time. They must hold their breath so they can climax together. He sends her off to fetch a bottle of red wine while he draws a bath.

However, the men in black drop by. When the instructor doesn’t give up Sarah’s location, Sarah can only watch in horror from the other room as blood pools under the door.

Bill finally senses someone else arriving. Holly makes her way toward Sookie. A cavalcade of ambushes ensues as the Hep-V vampires, Sam and Alcide, and Andy’s group arrive all at once. The Hep-V vampires are dispatched of.

But so is Alcide, who is dropped by a few bullets by a few folks off-screen. They’re simultaneously taken care of. One of the shooters? Lou, who now knows what it’s like after pulling the trigger and will now most likely bleed to death.

Jessica offers to turn Alcide, but Sookie refuses as the episode comes to a close.

So it seems as if the Hep-V vampires are all but taken care of. But now that Eric’s out of retirement and has motive to find Sarah, hopefully we get a better plot out of the remaining episodes.

I’m actually fine with the end of the Hep-V vampires, if that’s the case. Betty’s death from last week was not addressed at all, which makes me wonder what the writers gave Betty a connection to Arlene and Holly. It’s surprising that the vampires lasted together as long as they did, considering how much they bicker. But since they all seem to be gone, I assume this means the hostages will be freed soon.

Fine for Jason to pick up on what Andy said about family, but he won’t have time to settle any time soon.

And what’s up with Violet? I mean, in the prison, she said that Jason was hers and hers alone. He answered to her. Now all of a sudden, she wants a big, strong man. It’s not a complete 180 since she was so happy when Jason wanted to bone, but it just felt weird to me.

More than this, what’s her beef with Jessica? I doubt Jessica cares about whatever problem they had, so no reason for Violet to bring it up just to create forced drama. Furthermore, Jessica already has someone- sort of- so Violet shouldn’t even be interested in what happened in the past.

Interesting how Lafayette and James had the most interesting part of the episode to me, and it had nothing to do with the main storyline. Maybe it’s because Lafayette is still humorous without it coming at the expense of his character, as has often been the case with Jason. Or maybe the writers just needed to give Lafayette something to do since he’s not summoning any spirits.

He and James are on the verge of will they/won’t they, but it looks like James doesn’t want to progress. I’m not sure why James seems to have such devotion to Jessica, given how speaking of her doesn’t fill him with joy.

We’ve barely seen the two together, and it’s even more frustrating to imagine James and Jessica working out when you consider that, because of the actor switch, we’re basically being re-introduced to the character. They talk fondly of each other, but we don’t see their love play out on screen.

As for Reverend Daniels and Willa, it’s too late for me to care about these characters when the series is already overstuffed with folks. But hey, they’re here, so we get drawn out conversations for the purpose of character development and growth. It’s not worth the time and we don’t learn anything new about Lettie Mae. I don’t care about her plight, as we’ve already seen True Blood tackle addicts to vampire blood.

I appreciate that the Reverend took the initiative to rescind his invitation to Willa instead of hoping and praying that things would eventually work out. He recognizes that Mae is an addict and keeping Willa around will just cause complications, even though it’s not her fault. Here’s hoping that the Reverend’s faith is enough to keep him alive.

I suppose I should say something about Mrs. Fortenberry being dead. Well, she’s dead. Yeah, she’s been with the series for a long time, but I honestly could care less about her loss. Plus, she shot Jessica! She had it coming!

Bill and Sookie are just dull together. I don’t care about their filler talk of Six Flags. We get more of the same conversations with the two talking of love and junk. Sookie, once again, doesn’t want bad things to happen because of her, yet that still happens. Her plan isn’t too well thought out- she looks too much like obvious bait and doesn’t go where she thinks the vampires would be. Bill acknowledged before that the vampires nest in certain locales, so why not just drive to one?

Then we’ve got Alcide, who, in my opinion, hasn’t been nearly as interesting of a character since he left the wolf pack. At least there, he had better characterization. Here, he was just existed to take off his shirt and argue with Sookie. And from Sookie’s conversation with Bill, we at least know that he cared for her much more than she did for him. But at least Alcide had his death take place on-screen!

Eric’s return is a welcome one, sure, if only to see what he has planned for Sarah. I wasn’t a fan of how much he seemed to pine for Sylvie, given how little he knew about her compared to Pam. Even without knowing that this all takes place in the past, Eric is Pam’s maker. No way would he have her killed, so why have him grapple with the decision of which should die? Is the French vagina that alluring?

And bringing back Sarah not only gives Eric motive, it ties her involvement this season directly to the events of the previous one. Considering, you know, her involvement in the vampire camps and corrupting the Tru Blood. Not to mention her heel kill.

With this episode, the wheels feel like they’re in motion. With another major character death, the show looks like it wants to thin its ranks as much as possible before it ends. The Hep-V vampires plot looks to be almost over for now and Eric’s involvement will hopefully make things more entertaining as he goes on his hunt for Sarah. Will it ultimately be interesting? Hopefully.